As we head into the final weeks of 2024, everyone and every platform is looking back while forging ahead. I love a good trend report and I’m a sucker for a “year in review.” I’m taking notes as we build out our forecasts for 2025.Next week, we’ll drop our Beats + Bytes 2024 trends and review with our friends at Adweek. I see this community of newsletter writers and thought-leading voices as the modern-day mixtape artists, curating cultural themes and adlibbing our POVs. I’m as excited to hear your thoughts as I am to share my own.The biggest recap these days is definitively Spotify Wrapped. If you want to understand somebody, look at their listening habits (real data!) and not what they purport to represent on social media. SNL nailed it this week until they took it too far (a common mistake for this 50th season, but I digress).Do you remember when you didn’t share your data? Now we put it on blast with Spotify Wrapped. This is a paradigm shift into a bizzaro world I never thought would exist. What’s next, a wrapped of your Google search analytics? Your top Uber Eats? Most viewed-but-not-purchased Amazon items? How ‘bout an Oura ring year in review? This is who we’ve become.In this era of great, post-Covid, AI boom transformation, the creator economy has us all wanting to show off our uniqueness. Your POV is your highest leverage point and authenticity is the highest human gravitational frequency.Spotify set the tone by making their Wrapped a point of understanding, individualism, and self-expression. And then, in true Spotify fashion, they made it the biggest thing in culture with their top-rate marketing.And if you want to go deeper and understand your data more, you can do so with these cool ancillary sites.Of course, other music platforms have followed the leader, including Amazon Music, YouTube, Apple (with Replay), and Snap. Spotify even broadened its year-end scope to include podcast insights. This is valuable stuff for understanding the micro- and macro-cultural marketing environments.But like it or not, the platform of the year is unquestionably TikTok. Not only is this the place to break trends, it’s also the place for search and discovery. Their music recap laid down the hammer: 13 of this year’s 16 biggest hits on the U.S. charts are linked to TikTok trends. And I’m willing to bet that’s the same for search, restaurants, hotels, and news stories. TikTok is this generation’s MTV, full stop. It’s where culture lives.It’s wild to think that on January 19th, the day before the Trump Administration takes office, TikTok’s U.S. fate will be determined. Taking TikTok off the table would completely change the cultural landscape and cause another major paradigm shift. But that’s a vertical video for another day...
BEATS
Spotify's '2024 Wrapped' Celebrates the Brat Girls, Swifties, and Other Diehard FansOn Wednesday (Dec. 4), Spotify launched its global “2024 Wrapped” campaign, which over the past decade has become the platform’s biggest marketing moment of the year and a cultural talking point. Wrapped draws on Spotify user data to identify listening habits and cultural trends from the past year, and has sparked a tradition in which people share their personal recaps with friends and social media followers.
The Current Presale System Fails Most Artists And FansThe root of the problem is simple. Artists and their teams do not know who their fans are. They don’t have the systems or the fan data to identify who they are, where they are, and what they want. Many can’t even message their fans directly without the help of one of their suppliers (IQ Mag).
Harry Styles’ Pleasing, JW Anderson Reimagine the Viral Color-blocked Patchwork Cardigan Harry Styles’ color-blocked patchwork cardigan from JW Anderson, which went viral when the singer wore it on stage in 2020, has been revamped as part of a new collaboration. The English pop star’s brand Pleasing has worked with JW Anderson on a collection of apparel and beauty products with color and joy at the forefront (WWD).
How Sports Team Owners Made Millions Off Taylor Swift's $2 Billion Eras TourCities like Los Angeles, Chicago, London, and Sydney collectively generated hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. The Eras Tour is also the first concert tour in history to surpass $2 billion in total revenue, helping Taylor Swift become the first billionaire musician in history to make her fortune solely from music (Huddle Up).
will.i.am Plays DJ As He Demos New Musical Mercedes in MiamiThe rapper-turned-tech-entrepreneur was driving passengers around South Beach to showcase his new venture with Mercedes-Benz: an interactive entertainment system that can turn your car into a "virtual musical instrument,” (Axios).
A Trip Down Memory Lane: How J. Cole is Utilizing Nostalgia MarketingJ. Cole has been a large topic of conversation in the hip-hop world the last few weeks with the release of his audio series “Inevitable” in tandem with the commercial release of his early projects. The campaign continued last weekend when J. Cole announced a 10 year anniversary show at MSG in NYC this December for what many consider to be his breakthrough album “2014 Forest Hills Drive” (Mike Epstein).
Fans Want Experiences, Not Things—Here’s How to Connect in 2025Across global markets, several clear trends are emerging—opportunities for marketers to lead in a space where connections matter more than ever before. As we approach 2025, live entertainment has become the ultimate cultural connector for brands. Here’s what marketers need to know about fan connection in 2025 (Live Nation).
Lil Yachty Stars in New OVO x Disney CollaborationLil Yachty’s run continues as the hard to pin down hitmaker puts that sh*t on for the latest dose of OVO x Disney. Drake’s OVO have taken their fair share of hits in recent months, but they’re here to say one thing: we’re still standing (Pause Mag).
'Tis The Season: Smirnoff And Saweetie Unwrap A Festive Pop-Up In Nyc Curated For All Your Gifting Needs The one-day-only pop-up, curated by Smirnoff and Saweetie, is the ultimate destination for all things merry and bright – from custom gifts for everyone on your list to exclusive holiday experiences and unforgettable moments that are sure to make a fa-la-la-la-lasting impression (PR Newswire).
Taylor Swift might just save Target’s ChristmasWhile Target offered plenty of Black Friday bargains, the Swift merch was “probably the catalyst” for the turnout, says R.J. Hottovy, Placer.ai’s head of analytical research. Its data has previously shown a “Taylor Swift Visit Lift” in cities on her lengthy tour, played out in upticks in everything from tailgating events to craft store foot traffic (Fast Company).
A Few Of The Things We’re Excited About In Crypto (2025)As AIs make the transition from NPCs (non-playing characters) to being the main characters, they will begin to act as agents. However, until very recently, AIs haven’t been able to act truly agentically. And they are still unable to participate in markets — exchange value, reveal preferences, coordinate resources — in a verifiably autonomous (read: not human-controlled) way (a16zcrypto).
Cash App Wades Into the Exclusive World of Presale Concert TicketsWhen Kendrick Lamar and SZA announced a joint tour this week, there were no American Express, Citibank or Capital One presale codes in sight. Instead, fans reached for the digital payments platform Cash App, and some even dropped their handles across social media in hopes that someone would donate to their ticket funds (New York Times).
Spotify’s Next Big Thing! The Future of Music InteractionThe smartphone revolution has transformed how we consume media, and Spotify is at the forefront of reshaping how we experience music. Just as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) create new dimensions for gaming and communication, Spotify is set to introduce a feature called “Action Spotify” – a groundbreaking integration of music with interactive augmented reality (Smart Phone Magazine).
By 2028, AI Music Is Projected To Account For 20% Of All Streaming Platform RevenueIt's hard enough being a music creator on the cusp of the mid-point of the 2020s, but new data, revealed as a result of a report from the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) has indicated that by 2028, those working in the music sector will lose almost a quarter of their income due to the inexorable rise of generative AI. Yikes (Music Radar).
Music's Biggest ProblemsRob Abelow presents a comprehensive analysis of the 39 biggest challenges facing the music industry - from streaming economics to AI concerns - while emphasizing that these problems represent opportunities for innovation, particularly in creating better fan experiences and supporting artists as sustainable businesses (Where Music’s Going).
Snoop Dogg Opens Online Cannabis Shop Shipping Direct To U.S. ConsumersHip-hop icon and multi-talented entrepreneur Snoop Dogg on Wednesday opened an online shop selling cannabis flower and other hemp-derived products with shipment direct to U.S. consumers in more than three dozen states, including many that have not legalized recreational marijuana (Forbes).
Snoop Dogg's Latest Collab? Fronting Publicis' Holiday 'Wishzels' With CEO Arthur SadounPublicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun likes to put his own spin on the obligatory company-wide Holiday memo leaders are obliged to send in Q4. Every year, he sends out a “Wishes” film, sending seasonal greetings to staffers and outlining a wish-list for the year ahead (AdWeek).
BYTES
This week, I got a chance to sit down with Jason Feifer, Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur Magazine and chat with him on his podcast “Problem Solvers”. In this episode, we addressed how small businesses can leverage the power of music and musical artists to help tell their brand story and have it resonate with their consumers.
Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg brought California love to Las Vegas during ComplexCon 2024 last month. The longtime producer and rapper duo were special guests during the latest ComplexCon, which was held at the Las Vegas Convention Center, for a live version of Drink Champs with hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN (Complex).
ChatGPT powered Rabbit R1 is a pocketable personal assistant that has a lot under its belt, even though in unpolished software version right now. Sized nearly half that of an iPhone, the device co-designed with Teenage Engineering has a very clickily feel to it and can do a range of tasks independently without relying on phones or smart home gadgets (Yanko Design).
Doechii, known as the "Swamp Princess," arrived at NPR HQ radiating confidence. She moved with purpose, knowing exactly what she wanted and how to achieve it. Her declarative statement, "I'm everything," from "BOOM BAP" off her Grammy-nominated mixtape, ALLIGATOR BITES NEVER HEAL, was on full display in her Tiny Desk debut.
This week's newsletter was carefully curated by the Nue Agency staff and our editor Rachel Meisner If you think we missed something this week or have any suggestions/comments for next week's newsletter, let us know!